R.T. McCarthy, Metrolink Director of Operations, speaks at an anti-suicide event at Union Station. Metro and Metrolink officials held a press conference highlighting a suicide prevention campaign, encouraging people who feel sadness or depression during the holiday period with a message of "reach out, there is help", Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at Union Station. Two years ago, 19 people died by suicide on Metrolink tracks. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News)

R.T. McCarthy gestured to a group of conductors and engineers standing behind him when talking to the media Wednesday about curbing the number of suicides by train.

As the director of operations for Southern California commuter line Metrolink, it’s his job to investigate every train suicide. The tragic act hurts family and friends of the victim, but as McCarthy pointed out, it also can be devastating for transit employees.

“You do remember the events, the weather that day, what that person was wearing. The sound when a person makes contact is a sound that you’ll never forget,” he said.

McCarthy ran over an 8-year-old girl with a locomotive he was operating several years ago. The incident took place in the Bay Area the same year his mother killed herself, he said. After coming to terms with the accident through employer-provided counseling, McCarthy continued operating trains and today is helping to lower the number of suicides — as well as pedestrian deaths — on the growing number of train tracks in Southern California.

“He is the real hero today,” said Kita Curry, CEO of Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, who said McCarthy embodied the healthy message of talking about suicide, recognizing the warning signs exhibited by people in mental distress, and yes, listing the “other victims” who often experience post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.

Since March 2013, Hirsch has been working with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Metrolink to extend a lifeline to people contemplating ending their lives.

For example, pedestrian deaths, including suicides, grew at alarming rates on the Blue Line light-rail system from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach since the line opened in 1990. Didi Hirsch Services convinced the Metro board to put up 60 signs on Blue Line tracks that read: “Need help? Feeling hopeless? Call the suicide prevention hotline at 877-727-4747.”

The program was expanded to other light-rail lines in the county and to Metrolink platforms and stations in the five counties it serves.

Nineteen suicides involving Metrolink trains were reported in 2012. That number has been reduced to four in 2014, said Larry McCallon, Highland City Council member and Metrolink Board Chair. Metro light-rail systems reported one suicide this year, said Metro CEO Art Leahy.

McCallon said he was saddened to learn about a man in his 20s who committed suicide Monday by standing on the tracks of Metrolink’s San Bernardino-to-Los Angeles line. The young man was carrying a cell phone and a bottle of soda when he was struck by the eastbound train near Rancho Cucamonga around 3:30 p.m. The only witness was the train’s conductor, according to Teresa McMahon, a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s spokeswoman.

McCarthy interviewed the conductor at the scene.

“I went to talk to him and asked him: ‘Are you OK?’ because it is hard for them. The guy’s hands had the shakes,” he said.

About 80 percent of the suicides in Los Angeles County are male, said Lyn Morris, vice president of clinical operations at Didi Hirsch. But women attempt suicide more often than men, as much as three times as often, she said. Men use more lethal means, sometimes attributed to access to handguns, she said.

“Jumping in front of a train is a very lethal method,” she said, adding: “Unfortunately with a train, there are operators who are extremely traumatized as well as passengers on that train.”

One of the highest risk groups for suicide are Latinas, Morris said. Adolescents of all races and ethnicity are also high-risk for suicide. Often teens are bullied or cyberbullied, leaving them to feel humiliated and isolated.

Curry said people often ruminate about taking their own life, even if the act itself is impulsive. They may show such warning signs as: withdrawal from social activities, giving away favorite possessions or actually discussing how their family and friends would be better off if they were not around.

In general, family and friends don’t want to talk about suicide even after seeing warning signs because they think it will implant the suggestion. But Curry said that is a mistake. “There is no insult to asking somebody: ‘Are you alright? I am worried about you.’ If you do ask them about it, it doesn’t put ideas in their head. It opens doors.”

McCallon admitted suicide is a tough subject to talk about. Even Metro initially resisted putting up signs at light-rail stations three years ago, Morris said. “Because of the stigma, it was difficult to get the signs passed their marketing group. They didn’t want to put the word ‘suicide’ on the signs because they thought it would make people kill themselves,” she explained.

When the Metro board made it a mandate, the program was launched, she said. Metro reports incidents have declined dramatically on the Metro Blue Line due to the anti-suicide program.

The Didi Hirsch agency receives about 60,000 calls a year. Counselors work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some speak Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese in addition to English, Curry said.

Nearly 100 people have died by standing in the path of a Metro rail, Union Pacific, Metrolink, Amtrak or BNSF train in Los Angeles County since 1991, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner/Coroner.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He is married to Karen E. Klein, a former journalist with Los Angeles Daily News, L.A. Times, Bloomberg and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and now vice president of content management for a bank. They have two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. They live in Pasadena. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.